Put a spring in your step! Baltimore by Foot is back

March 20, 2014

Happy first day of spring! We’re celebrating the long-awaited return of sunny days with today’s announcement for our 2014 Baltimore by Foot neighborhood walking tours. I hope you can join us on one (or all!) of these leisurely strolls through five fantastic neighborhoods.

I love Patterson Park? We dig Hampstead Hill! Our archeological investigation in Patterson Park starts next week with a high-tech remote sensing survey using ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry, and more to find what might be hidden under the hill. Stop by the park on March 27 for a high-tech show and tell discussion with Dr. Tim Horsely and Dr. John Bedell.

Finally, whether you’re Irish or not, you might enjoy our our latest Baltimore 1814 update on the St. Patrick’s Day “Divine Service” held in Fell’s Point on March 17, 1814. We even shared found a few Irish toasts that reveal how Baltimore perservered “while English drums rattle at our doors.” Enjoy and please subscribe to receive our weekly Baltimore 1814 updates in your inbox.

Photograph of Barclay & East 20th Street, courtesy Jennifer A. Ferretti, March 3, 2014.

Waverly Main Street listed on the National Register of Historic Places

February 7, 2014

Congratulations to the Waverly Main Street community including Joe Stewart, Tom Gamper, Elise Hoffman and many others for the listing of the Waverly Main Street Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places! Baltimore Heritage also played an important role in providing technical assistance for the completion of the nomination in 2012. This new historic district includes the area roughly bounded by East 29th Street, Barclay Avenue, East 35th Street, Old York Road, and Greenmount Avenue.

Download the full nomination (PDF) for the Waverly Main Street Historic District for more background on the history and architecture of this vital Baltimore neighborhood.

Image courtesy Live Baltimore.

News: Patterson Park archaeological dig set to start in April

February 5, 2014

Patterson Park archaeological dig set to start in April, Baltimore Guide, February 5, 2014.

[Baltimore 1814: January 16-22] “this morning presents a most violent Snow Storm” and more familiar stories

January 22, 2014

1814 is much like the present in many ways. Women became mothers, men became grandparents, and others passed away leaving family behind. Here are two births and one death we’re remembering this week:

Wendell Bollman was born at his father’s bakery on Water Street. Bollman grew up to become the “Master of the Road” for the B&O Railroad, famed for his iron bridges.
With the birth of Ramsay McHenry, James McHenry, the namesake of Fort McHenry, became a grandfather. At the beginning of 1814, the elder McHenry suffered an attack of paralysis that left him home-bound in West Baltimore.
John Henry Fusselbaugh, a dealer in building materials and resident of Old Town on East Street, died. He was survived by his wife Barbara and his 13-year-old son.

Missed last week’s update? Don’t forget to check out our story on Robert Mills and his “book of designs” for Baltimore’s Washington Monument.

American and Commercial Daily Advertiser, January 17, 1814

[Photo] Washington Monument’s “Basement”

January 16, 2014

January 14, 2014, gkrugandson on Instagram.

Thanks to G. Krug and Son Ironworks for sharing this neat shot from the ongoing restoration of the Washington Monument. Tons of brick and marble make up this 178-foot tall icon—all supported by the stone and brick arches down in the “basement.”